Iraq's Oil Ministry initialled a deal on Thursday with a group led by Russia's Gazprom to develop its eastern Badrah oilfield. Gazprom is partnering with Turkey's TPAO, Korea's Kogas and Malaysia's Petronas for the field, which is near Iraq's border with neighbouring Iran and has estimated reserves of 100 million barrels of oil.
Gazprom owns 40 percent of the venture. Kogas holds 30 percent of the venture, Petronas holds 20 percent, and TPAO has a 10-percent stake of the companies' joint venture. The deal is one of a series Iraq is initialling in a bid to transform its struggling oil sector and bring production capacity to 12 million barrels in six or seven years.
The deal was awarded in an energy auction earlier this month attended by leading global energy firms. Iraq, which has the world's third largest oil reserves, now produces an average of around 2.5 million barrels per day.